Intelliflo pump

davea2August 28, 2010

My intelliflo pump just stopped working. I cannot even get an LED to light up on the top control panel(vs3050 or 4X160). It is powered by the breaker in the load center and is connected to my intellitouch control system. I have less than 100 hours on it and it just stopped resonding. It appears there is no power getting to the controller.

First thing would be to verify it is getting power.
Is breaker tripped?
Do you have a meter to check it.
If it is getting power and no lights are on then it would have to be a drive problem, then call warranty.

Being an engineer, I have checked all of the obvious issues. The breaker is sound and the motor has 240V present. It worked fine for about five days and one day would not energize during the programmed turn-on cycle.

Even though the motor is more than a year old, it has only been installed for a week and has less than 50 hours of operation. Pentair will not replace the electronics nor stand behind the $1000 product. I would not buy their products again. Does anybody have a schematic of the circuit, i can probably buy the chips and repair it myself.

Can't say I know how to fix the electronics, but I am interested in what support you were able to get/not-get from Pentair.

It's out of warranty (over a year old - how much over?). Do you have some sort of proof that it wasn't in service for the whole time? Did you purchase it from a local dealer and did they refuse support?

I had a car transmission fail a couple of months after the warranty - I would have been out of luck except that I had a consistent record of purchasing the same brand from the same dealer - they (the OEM) ended up covering material cost and I had to eat the labor - overall not bad for an out of warranty claim IMO.

I'm hoping you can categorize the lack of Pentair support - I mean I wouldn't expect them to give you schematics, but it doesn't mean they should turn their back either.

Basically Pentair has turned their back on this situation. I asked to escalate the issue to their Division General Manager or at least their Marketing Manager and they would not give me any phone numbers. I installed all of the equipment myself, Intellitouch, Max-e-therm heater, Quad DE filter, and a UV sanitizer system. Because of the nature of how I plumbed the system, all sweep elbows for hydraulic efficiency, etc., I need to replace the exact pump. A new control module is the same price as a new pump. I would think twice about buying from Pentair.

Did you install all of that equipment at the same time.
If so you have a 3 year warranty, not a 1 year. When you purchase a filter, pump, and one other item it extends to 3 years.
If you have any proof, plumbing reciepts ect you should be able to establish a start/install date. Date of purchase really doesnt matter.

Where are you located, I can get you some real help. The robots on the tech line arent the best sometimes.

If you continue to strike out getting the drive replaced under warranty or through the help of racket, I would recommend a 2 speed if your ready to throw in the variable speed towel.

A smaller 2 speed such as a 1HP, will only use about a 100 more watts than the variable speed when operating at low speed...not that much difference.

You can find one of these 2 speeds for much less than the replacement cost of one drive. Plus, you never have to worry about another drive failing down the road.

Just curious...was there a lightning storm around the time your drive failed. Others on this forum have installed whole house surge protectors to protect their variable speed drives...about $300-500.

Is it worth it...maybe so if your utility rate is high..say above $.30/KWH and you don't have any more failures.

I'm a big fan of 2 speed pumps due to low cost, dependability and ease of replacement if problems occur..and their efficiency is not that far behind variable speed at low speed and in some cases even better than variable speed at higher speeds.

You'd be surprised that your existing plumbing system will work fine with a 2 speed if you're done with variable speed...it's your call but wanted to offer another option that has been working well on our pool for 4 years now...troublefree and efficient. We have two 2 speed pumps and 2 single speed pumps...no problems with any of them and the 2 speeds do all of the heavy lifting each day saving bundles of money each month.

just-a-pb is correct on the extended warranty
You have a full equipment set and more. Filter + motor, and either controller or heater grants you the 3 year warranty.
I'd call them back and have them dispatch a warranty tech to your home.
I think it's hogwash that they wont work with you.

There is a caveat on the 3-yr warranty card (the one I have anyway) that says it applies to new residential in-ground pools and that the parts have to be registered with Pentair when installed/first used.

Kelly, is there another set of cards for people who are swapping out to new equipment with an old pool?

Offered since I don't know if the OP has a new pool or old. And if the OP didn't bother to submit warranty cards, then Pentair "might" be legally able to wiggle out of the warranty. This is one of the big problems (in my experience) with buying online, great prices but little support without a dealer to help.

If I sell a customer a Pentair Pump and filter combination, and I also sell them an Intellichlor at the same time, all 3 get the 3 year warranty. Whether it's a new pool or not, AFAIK, makes no difference.

quote""" I think this points out the reason to buy equipment from a local authorized dealer.
Saving a couple of bucks buying from some Internet company doesn't pay when you need service. """quote

I'm not for sure but I think that Jandy only offers warranty on their equipment purchased off of the Internet from like 2 Internet authorized wholesalers, otherwise to get it you must purchase from regular wholesalers like SCP and the others.
Pentair may be the same.
If it came from local distribution then the products should be covered for 3 yrs regardless of the application of new or renovation construction.

Kelly,
What I mean by that is, if this was one of my, or your customers it would never be an issue. Dealing with SOMEONE, as opposed to dealing with some entity is better. We have pull, and get things fixed even out of warranty.

I never did get my motor repaired. A real shame, less than 100 operating hours. I replaced it with an identical unit, and suppose I will keep the failed unit if the motor and pump assembly ever need replacing. Pentair's customer service was downright pathetic. Actually, downright arrogant. I'm sure they have not done too great through the downturn, couldn't happen to nicer guys.

I sell Pentair equipment is the only equipment sold at my store and I can tell you this if you had purchased this unit from me you would have a new Drive.....I'm not sure where you purchased it but if it was online then that's where the problem started. I'm sorry for your problems but Pool Companys sell service. On the other note are you sure you did not have a power surge or lightning strike that could have damaged the drive? You homeowners should cover this......

While I agree that, where possible, it's always best to buy locally, it's not always practical.

I recently bought a Pentair Easytouch 8 w/IC-40 (their p/n 520705) from poolsupplyunlimited.com for less than $1700. Our pool builder said his cost was more than that, and our local pool supply store gave me a price of $3100 for this unit.

I would have gladly paid a couple hundred bucks more locally, but couldn't justify that huge difference.

And not having local support or install services are worth how much to you? I wonder if the pricing given to you was including that. I also won't provide support. Maybe someone will but it won't be me and that carries a lot of weight.

If services were included, justifying is easy. Without them, you are being told to take your business elsewhere, which you did.

If it cost a hundred or two more through the builder versus the price you got from the internet dealer, so what? You didn't indicate that though you you did mention the other local pool store. This I do have a problem with unless you are installing it yourself.

I won't do it to my mechanic and he won't do it to me. Will he make money on parts I need? You bet! Do I have an issue? Nope. I hope you don't either, assuming its reasonable. If you do, I don't want you as a customer. That is a matter of personal ethics.

I would suggest that the next time you buy any brand equipment find someone locally. That the brand you want is all they sell. The price you paid is not out of the park for a volume dealer out the door.

FYI, as i said in an earlier post I bought a new unit and installed it. It has now run fine ever since. There was no lightning or any other noticeable power surge at the time. It is a common failure mode for that pump controller. It is poorly engineered. It has nothing to do with where it was purchased, bottom line is the design is marginal and Pentair knows it. I do have a surge suppressor wired into my Intellitouch power center. I am willing to bet it is a single component failure on the drive controller, probably easy to replace and fix. Now I have an expensive spare parts source!

"FYI, as i said in an earlier post I bought a new unit and installed it. It has now run fine ever since. There was no lightning or any other noticeable power surge at the time. It is a common failure mode for that pump controller. It is poorly engineered. It has nothing to do with where it was purchased, bottom line is the design is marginal and Pentair knows it. I do have a surge suppressor wired into my Intellitouch power center. I am willing to bet it is a single component failure on the drive controller, probably easy to replace and fix. Now I have an expensive spare parts source!"

Sorry Im late to the party, but you are delusional if you think that the intelliflo controller is garbage. That unit is over engineered. Ive installed hundreds over the past five years and only had one drive unit fail. That was after 4 years. Pentair covered it anyway because they stand behind their products and their registered dealers. We even found out that the failure was due to a small voltage bleed while the unit was powered down in the off season. They still covered it. If you had a unit fail on you there was a reason. And if you had purchased from a registered local dealer you would not be having any issues. You would have had to simply pick up the phone to have a tech come fix it free. And by the way.......how can you possibly confirm that you have had no power spikes?

I also echo what ahudson said. We have installed over 100 intelliflo pumps over the past 5 years, and I've only ever had 1 drive failure and it was after a storm and the people lost power. Pentair also replaced it under warranty since it was covered by the 3 year warranty.

I still can't figure out how the pump had only 100 hours on it and was out of warranty? was it only run for 10 minutes a day? old thread..so we probably won't ever know. I put a link to our specs below